BA province government finds teachers' strike 'beyond understanding'

Cabinet Chief of the Buenos Aires province Alberto Pérez.

The Daniel Scioli administration has questioned Buenos Aires province unionized teachers’ decision to continue with their walkout althouh they have been called for a new round of wage talk for Tuesday 11. “Starting a negotiation with a 48-hour strike is incomprehensible,” Cabinet Chief Alberto Pérez affirmed.

“We called them to continue with the collective bargaining process on Tuesday which is where salary hikes and labour issues must be discussed. They responded again with a strike but they will not break our will to reach consensus,” the head of ministers of the BA province told reporters.

“We don’t understand the walkout because that should be the last (resource) stage to reach, when there is no dialogue, when there is no agreement. Starting the negotiation with a 48-hour strike is inexplicable,” Pérez complaint and defended the 25-percent salary offer made by the provincial administration, involving also a 2,000-peso perfect attendance plus that will be paid by the federal government and that would take the wage increase to “31 percent by December” this year.

“What we don´t understand is classes not starting because a strike is not a possibility in any salary negotiation. We think this is a good offer; (the walkout) is detrimental to the kid that has no classes and to parents,” the minister affirmed and added the administration of Governor Daniel Scioli has not ruled out the possibility of issuing a mandatory conciliation order.

“Both parties are now negotiating but we are also facing a strike. If the logic is to strike amid a salary negotiation, they will face (wage) deductions,” Alberto Pérez warned.